Here is Gone
by Eilay and Emerald
Summary: [AU] When life hands us a tragic or a joyous moment, it often takes place in hospital room. So when Rinoa Heartilly has a hospital stay of her own, she quickly realizes that she’s no exception to the rule. [Emerald–Latias and EilayAdnayVolieay collab fic]
1. Chapter I – Something Unexpected

**Summary** – (AU) When life hands us a tragic or a joyous moment, it often takes place in hospital room. So when Rinoa Heartilly has a hospital stay of her own, she quickly realizes that she's no exception to the rule.

**Disclaimer **– We do not own anything from Final Fantasy 8, and this disclaimer will apply to any future chapters as well.

**Here is Gone**

_Emerald-Latias and EilayAdnayVolieay_

–

**Chapter I - Something Unexpected**

'_When did I go to bed? I don't remember walking to my room._'

She turned onto her side, eyes still closed. But apparently, her body didn't approve of this shift in movement. '_Ow...my body hurts. It hurts to breathe too.._'

Turning herself over to her other side, another shot of pain coursed through her sides and she involuntarily opened her eyes to a scathingly colour-neutral room with white walls, white curtains, white...everything. This wasn't the baby-blue room she had in her new, quant little home in Balamb, not by a long shot. She shut her eyes as fast as she opened them. In one mind-piercing instant, it all came back to her; Rinoa Heartilly remembered everything.

...And now she was stuck in some tiny hospital room to show for that '_everything', _wrist tags, shapeless gowns and all.

She rolled onto her other side with the last-ditch hope that this was all some kind of hellish nightmare. The fact that her body lit on fire with agony two seconds later confirmed that it wasn't. She stayed as still as she possibly could, trying to steady her breathing as the pain began to slowly disappear.

_'Dad was right...I really should have been more prepared for the weather here in Balamb. Hyne...he's not going to be thrilled when he finds out about how my first time driving around here included my first accident too.'_

Rinoa sighed and leaned back into her pillow with a frown, knowing what was going to happen if he'd come to visit. The fact that her mind was current debating over the now hot-button issue of, _'What would he be more worried about, the fairly expensive car he had just bought me, or how I was doing?' _wasn't reassuring in the least. Her father was one of those, '_See? This is why you should listen to me, I'm right_.' types, not tearful reunion material in the slightest. Inevitably, the next thing she wondered about was how long of a grace period she'd have before he, or anyone else knew she was here in the hospital.

The hospital. Surrounded by the same, hideously plain white walls and ugly tile flooring as any other stereotypical hospital known to man, Rinoa couldn't help but wonder if all the hospitals in the world were purposely designed to make its patients to go crazy and want nothing more than to hide in rainbow so that the whiteness would stop mocking them relentlessly. Needless to say, a hospital wasn't exactly her favourite place to be and she was the type of person who liked her world full of colour.

Suddenly startled, she turned towards the door as it began opening. Moments later, it swung open to reveal an older woman in a white lab coat.

"So, you've finally woken up." the woman stated, walking towards Rinoa's bed. "You've been out cold for a few days now. Open your eyes wide." Rinoa did as she was told and opened her eyes, but they immediately closed when the doctor shined a bright light in them. "Please, I need to do my job; it will only take a moment to check everything."

"How long do I have to stay here?" Rinoa asked while her eyeballs were currently being fried from the cruel and unforgiving light again. "Doctor..."

"-Kadowaki. Now, there's no need for a blood test, we've already taken a sample a little a while ago and everything seems perfectly normal..." Dr. Kadowaki said gently, checking the machines Rinoa was previously-unaware she was hooked up to.

_'...They stabbed a needle into me while I was unconscious?' _she thought in near-revolt, before her mind completely went into overdrive with all of the ghastly possibilities. '_I'm almost afraid of what she's going to say next more than the 'friendly' father-daughter chat I know I'm going to get later on._'

The miniature flashlight was finally turned off and safely stowed away in one of Dr. Kadowaki's large pockets.

"...However," the doctor continued in a more serious tone, "I believe it is in your best interest if we keep you here for further observation, just to be sure that there aren't any additional complications from your injuries Miss Heartilly."

"So...how long would that be? An extra day, two—"

"-One to two weeks." the older woman flatly answered. Almost as if she picked up on her disbelief straightway, Dr. Kadowaki explained furthermore. "The reason why we're keeping you for a longer period of time is because of the amount of time you were unconscious for and because of the minor fractures to your ribs. It's standard protocol for these types of injuries."

Crestfallen, she managed to mumble a feeble, "Oh, I see."

Picking up the clipboard that most-likely noted her status at the foot of her bed, the doctor made a quick couple of scribbles on it before talking to her again. "Do you have any questions you'd like to ask me before I go to make my rounds tonight?"

"..No, I can't really think of any right now." she responded, stifling a yawn.

"Okay, then I'll check up on you in a couple of hours." the older woman asserted, putting back the clipboard to his original place before making her way to the tiny, box-like room's doorway and turning around to tell her one last thing. "Just make sure you get a lot of rest now, I don't want you moving around for awhile until we know that the most basic of moments won't aggravate your fractured ribs."

Carefully placing the covers on top of herself, Rinoa complied with the doctor's wishes but ended up falling into a very uneasy sleep. There were too many things that had just happened in such a short period of time and too many thoughts swirling around her twenty-four year-old mind to be able to sleep well.

—

Rinoa tossed and turned in her very stiff hospital bed, groaning loudly in frustration. There were only so many positions she could get in to try and sleep with her fractured ribs, and so far, she was having no success in finding a comfortable one.

"...Why couldn't they have just let me go home?" Rinoa sighed; she knew perfectly well why they had kept her here, but that didn't make her like it any more.

"_...You may be in the wrong kind of hospital if you're talking to yourself._"

She froze. Not for one second had she considered the possibility that she might be sharing this hospital room. The curtains had been pulled on her bed's left side to shield her from the other bed in the room and no one had made a noise before now.

"I... didn't realize there was anyone else here." She waited several moments after speaking, but the other companion in the room didn't speak again. She pushed the button on her bed to make it slowly move so she was sitting in an upright position and outstretched her arm towards the curtain between the two beds.

_'I wonder why Dr. Kadowaki didn't talk to him when she came in earlier, or check how he was doing. I wish she would have so I wouldn't have gone through this kind of embarrassment.' _

Rinoa pulled the curtains back and saw a young man lying on the bed, staring in the direction of the window. He seemed to sense her staring, and turned to face her.

"...Do you mind?" he asked her harshly. Rinoa tried to smile feebly.

"Sorry," she apologized, "I'm Rinoa."

The young man stared at her for a moment, before turning over on his side again and staring out the window. Rinoa turned her gaze towards it as well, and saw that the snow was falling down fast.

"Rinoa Heartilly," she tried again. The young man didn't even do as much as to look at her; it was almost like he was making a point of ignoring her. "You could at least tell me your name, you know." she added, trying to hide her increasing frustration. All she did was introduce herself, why was he being so unfriendly?

"...Squall."

"And to think, it took all that effort to say one word." Rinoa joked, hoping that it would entice him into saying something in return. But no, he kept on facing the other way. She sighed and shook her head, deciding to close the curtain altogether.

"_Fine,_" she mumbled under her breath, "-_don't talk to me and be a meany._"

_'For someone stuck in the same room, surrounded by the same four walls, he should be as bored as I am by now. I would kill for a half-decent distraction right now and he's avoiding the opportunity altogether? Either he's really anti-social or I have really bad morning breath.' _

—

**End of Chapter Comments - **Any comments would be greatly appreciated, seeing as this is kind of a learning process for us both.


	2. Chapter II – The Divider Curtain

**Emerald's Notes – **Thanks you guys, I really appreciate the comments and I sincerely hope that this'll live up to your expectations. This story's not going to be a typical cookie-cutter Squinoa, so I think it's safe to say that you guy will be pleasantly surprised with what we thought up.

**Eilay's Notes - **Thanks for all the really great reviews! You guys seem enthusiastic and hopeful for this story, and that's good to know. Let's see how Emerald and I do :) Hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

**Here is Gone**

_Emerald-Latias and EilayAdnayVolieay_

—

**Chapter II – The Divider Curtain**

A whole twenty-four hours had passed since that fateful moment occurred, the very moment where she'd been eloquently informed about her two week prison sentence in the place she stood now. Okay, so maybe she wasn't exactly _'standing'_ per se, and maybe this wasn't a prison sentence either, but...how in Hyne's name was she supposed to kill time without anything within her immediate grasp? Oh and yes, there was also the issue of being confined to her bed as well, which...didn't really help anything in the slightest. It was getting so bad that she almost wished that her father was here to lecture her about the car so that there'd be something to get her mind off of the blank walls evilly staring back at her. Well, that and the painful irony she had to endure involving the fact that she had workable legs and yet, she wasn't allowed to walk around.

...It was _that_ bad.

Rinoa sighed. Maybe, just maybe, with the tiniest bit of luck, the doctors would realize that they'd made a mistake and she was free to catch a taxi to go home, to her nice and cozy—_Nevermind_, she went through that already. Rinoa sighed again. Despite the minimal amount of time she'd been here, this place was already starting to take a toll on her sanity.

Just then, the door to the room opened and another one of the hospital's doctors came in. Wanting to be prepared for whatever it was the doctor was going to say or ask of her, Rinoa put herself in a semi-presentable upright position, only to realize that he wasn't here for her the instant he went past the divider curtains.

"_Hello, Mr. Leonhart. How are you feeling so far today?_" Rinoa heard the doctor ask on the other side. She heard a muffled reply come from Squall and the sound of some rapid scribbling moments later.

_'...If I'm paying enough attention to hear that, I must be __**really**__ bored...' _Rinoa mused. She tried to tune out the doctor and Squall, but in the end, she couldn't help herself. The appeal of hearing something was better than the brain-cell-killing kind of nothingness she was previously offered.

"_Since_ _your body is not responding to the previous medication you were on according to Doctor Kadowaki's test results, we've decided to put you on a new medication to see if your body responds better to it. If not, well- we'll worry about that when the time comes._"

"..._So what, I'm nothing more than a test subject now?_" She heard Squall ask bitterly.

"_Not at all, but you need to get your condition controlled at least a little, if you hope to-_" Rinoa couldn't hear the rest of the sentence, whether it was because the doctor spoke too low or he trailed off, she didn't know.

Right then, her ears perked up at the young man's sharp response. "_My condition __**was**__ under control,__** before**__ I was brought here._" 

"_You were found unconscious and non-responsive._ _Whether you're willing to admit it or not Mr. Leonhart, I doubt that would be considered as being under control._" the doctor said firmly. "_Take two pills, every four to six hours, after eating. Report any side effects you experienced from the medication to the doctor that comes in to check on you._"

"_Fine._"

And with that, the doctor walked past the curtains and past Rinoa's bed. He briefly glanced at her before continuing on his way out of their room.

_'So he's on special medication... I wonder what for? What am I saying? That's none of my business.' _Rinoa sighed and tried to shift her position a little so that she was more comfortable, but it only resulted in yet another moment of blinding pain in her sides.

"...Rinoa?"

Rinoa turned her head and stared at the doorway where she saw her father just standing there blankly, looking like he was trying to take in his surroundings but couldn't quite do so while his eyes were fixated on his bedridden daughter sitting before him. This time, Rinoa's sides hurt even worse when she shifted back over.

'..._Looks like I'm going to be the poster girl for 'be careful what you wish for' any moment now._'

As he was slowly approaching her bed, she couldn't help but notice the stiffness of his gait and his stoniness of his expression.

'_God, he looks so tense, maybe I should try to let him know that I'm still the same person and not some brain-damaged vegetable._'

"So...I guess this makes you my first visitor then." she casually mentioned to him with a hint of a smile, trying lighten things up a bit, but failing miserably at doing so. He took a seat on the nearest chair beside her bed and remained silent. "I'm doing okay..._well,_ for the most part anyway. Moving around kind of hurts."

He still sat there as silent and as movement-free as ever. Stone gargoyles looked more lifelike.

'_Hm,'_ she thought, _'-if I give him an opening so that he can get the whole me totalling the car thing out of the way and out of his system, maybe I could have a shot at having nice visit after. Well...nice compared to being bored out of my skull.'_

"I haven't talked with any kind of mechanic since the accident, but I'm pretty sure the car's not totalled." When her words didn't prod him enough to get the desired follow-up or any follow-up, she awkwardly continued. "...Which is good...right?"

There was a switch in his expression this time. Nothing more, nothing less, it was only a twitch. Rinoa was quickly getting annoyed. Any other time, her father wouldn't have hesitated to bury her with lectures and today, he was acting like a mute? Has the entire world gone topsy-turvy or was this simply the reaction people were inclined give her whenever she wanted a conversation in the past two days?

"Hey, I'm not here because I'm dying. You don't have to act like we're in a morgue." she said tiredly, her patience clearly whittled down to non-existent. "Say something, anything. You can even tell me how mad you are or that you were right or.._.whatever, I don't care! .._.I'm bored enough to _want_ to be yelled at for Hyne sakes."

He let out a heavy sigh. "_I'm...just relieved you're okay._"

Rinoa blinked.

'_...That was unexpected.'_

—

It was around five o'clock when her father ended his brief stay and the sound of squeaky, ungreased wheels and metal clanging could be heard in the hallway outside of Rinoa's room. The grumbling in her stomach and the nurses' voices in the hall gave her a hunch that it was probably close to dinner time around here.

_'Hm. I wonder if the hospital food is as bad as they always say it is. ...I hope not, I'm really hungry.' _Rinoa thought with a sigh. She turned her head slightly so she would avoid accidentally hurting her sides like she'd done far too many times already. Peering through the divider curtain's sliver of an opening, she noticed that her dear old room companion was vigilantly staring out the window again, no flicker of movement whatsoever. Rinoa almost wanted to roll her eyes. Was that all he ever did? 

"Dinner time!" a nurse's voice called out as she brought the food cart in, confirming Rinoa's earlier thought about it being time to eat. The nurse smiled at Rinoa and pulled the table on her bed over so that it was in front of her.

"I'm just going to push this button here to raise your bed so you can eat," the nurse told Rinoa kindly.

Rinoa nodded vaguely, craning her neck to try to scrutinize the food on the cart unsuccessfully; the angle she was at didn't allow her that luxury without aggravating her ribs. She involuntarily jumped a little when the bed began to rise but quickly adjusted to it and started leaning back and relaxing. Although it was nice to be sitting up for a change after lying down all this time, a teeny question popped up at the back of her mind. _Why hadn't she thought of raising the bed earlier?_

"Here's your dinner."

The nurse finally brought over one of the trays from the cart and Rinoa forced a smile. Muttering a quiet '_thank you', _she started poking at her food with her fork. As far as her observational skills went, those rumours looked like they were going to hold water; the potatoes and mystery meat which were placed before her looked bland and the wafting smell infiltrating her nostrils wasn't suggesting anything promising. _Then again_, she reasoned, _those things didn't really matter – it was about how it tasted, right?_

As Rinoa began to cautiously nibble away at her dinner, she saw the nurse disappear past the divider curtain to bring another tray over to Squall. It wasn't long before she began to cough slightly at the taste of the meat. It was far from gourmet and bite away from being edibleShe put down her fork and immediately grabbed the orange juice from her tray and the juice's accompanying straw. She stabbed the straw hard through the foil lid and wasted no time to take a long swig to get rid of the meat's aftertaste.

Thankfully, it did the trick.

'..._Looks like I'm going to need to bribe someone to bring me some half-decent soup or something._'

When the nurse had left, Rinoa finished the rest of her juice and pushed her table away. Out of sheer boredom, she turned her to look through the curtain opening to see if he didn't like the food as much as she did, but instead, saw him open a translucent brown pill bottle.

From the angle he was holding it, she could see that it was filled to the brim with tiny little red capsules, a few of which he took out to down quickly and disconcertingly enough, without needing any sort of liquid to make it go down easier. Before she could avert her eyes to avoid being caught looking, she saw a flash of blue-grey. It wasn't a good sign, considering that the particular shade of blue was the colour of his eyes.

"...Haven't you ever seen someone take pills in your life?" There was a definitive snap when he closed the bottle's top. "I don't understand why you would find that interesting enough to gawk at me."

"No, it was by accident..really. I just had a taste of the stuff they gave us and it wasn't very edible. I guess I wanted to see if the whole 'bad hospital food' cliché was true or if it was just me but when I looked, you took out your medicine instead. Either way, I'm sorry for not respecting your privacy...and for what happened yesterday too while I'm at it." She let out a self-conscious chuckle. "...I suppose that being ultra-bored does that kind of thing to me. Does it do that kind of thing to you?"

He shrugged. "...I don't know."

Despite her neutral appearance on the outside, a jolt coursed through Rinoa's system. And this time, it had nothing to with her fractured ribs or the state of her bed. He'd actually said something _voluntarily_.

"Oh, okay." She awkwardly paused for a moment. "Well...I'll leave you alone then."

She closed the opened section of the divider, carefully turned to look the other way and plopped her head down on the elevated pillow, trying to ignore the increased rumbling of her stomach and the background noise. The soft echo of his footsteps on the other side of the curtain was almost unbearable to hear, knowing that she was confined to the bed she now laid in while he was presumably walking around to get something or ...doing whatever menial task where walking was involved somehow.

A loud _'Thud!'_ near her bed caught Rinoa off-guard though. Before she knew it, and if her eyes hadn't deceived her, the divider curtain flew open and Squall wasn't looking at the window for a change, but at her instead. This was a very foreign concept to Rinoa. Did she accidentally use reverse psychology on him or something?

When he pointed to the base of her bed, Rinoa became even more confused. "...Could you get that book? It fell."

"Oh." She cautiously slinked to the bed's left side to look over the edge to see where it landed. Luckily, it wasn't out of reach and she was able to give it back to him, despite some moderate discomfort. And that's when she noticed something peculiar about the book's cover. "Hey, I have that book at home. How far are you into it?"

"...Chapter 16."

"Ooh, I bet you'll never guess what happens at the end of that part."

"I've...already read this book before." he replied dully before he gave an equally-flat '_thank you'_ and closed the curtains again.

'_Maybe I should_ _look at this on the bright side.' _she mused._ '...At least it __**was**__ an improvement over yesterday._'

—

**End of Chapter Comments –** Sorry for the wait, we had some problems that came up which made updating a little difficult.


	3. Chapter III – Progress and Change

**Emerald's Notes – **Sorry for such the long wait on this one. I had finals to study for in school and from what Eilay was saying, she was pretty busy too. Hopefully this'll make up for lost time though. :)

**Eilay's Notes – **Yeah, sorry too. I had a Christmas Concert I had to rehearse for, for my school band and school choir, and my class and what not.

**Here is Gone**

_Emerald-Latias andEilayAdnayVolieay_

—

**Chapter III – Progress and Change**

"...Hey Rin, how are you holding up?"

Rinoa managed a tired but appreciative grin. "Sore, but otherwise fine Selph." She pressed the button responsible for raising her bed so she could sit upright. "How did you manage to get here from all the way in Deling so quickly?"

Sitting on the chair beside her bed, the brunette shrugged. "I suppose you could say that news travels fast but I travel faster. Well... when I can grab a ticket for the earliest train over here that is." She bent down to pick up something Rinoa couldn't see from where she was sitting. A moment later, Selphie's upper body popped back up and she handed her a medium-sized bag. "Here, this is for you. It's not much, but I figured you could use the distraction later on."

After having a lousy night's sleep on an empty stomach, waking up to the sight of her best friend from out of town sitting at her bedside, knowing that she obviously went through buckets of trouble just to be there for her made Rinoa feel immensely grateful. Add the fact that she even made the effort to cure an accurately-predicted boredom and you had one invalid on the brink of wanting to throw caution to the wind and throw her arms around that said friend in a thank-filled hug.

The brunette scooted her chair closer to the bed. "_Well_...aren't you going to take a look?"

Rinoa blinked. "_Oh yeah._.. I am. Sorry, I guess I kind of spaced out."

The other girl let out a small laugh. "Hee hee...maybe they should give you less pain meds then."

"Hey... I'm not _that_ drugged out." she replied half-indignantly, half-jokingly. "I was just thinking about how lucky I am to have such a good friend by my side right now."

"Aww... stop it Rin. You're gonna make me blush." Selphie told her, feigning embarrassment. Rinoa smiled and opened the bag that Selphie had handed her. Inside were some new editions of her favourite magazines and some paperback novels to keep her busy reading.

"Thanks, Selphie." Rinoa replied gratefully. She gently set the bag down on the table beside the hospital bed, deciding she would take a more thorough look when her friend was gone.

"So, what exactly _have _you been doing while you've been stuck here?" Selphie asked her, looking around the room and taking in her surroundings.

"Absolutely nothing. You know, you're the second visitor I've gotten here." Rinoa shrugged. "My dad was here just the other day."

"-Was he giving you the old lecture on driving safely?" Selphie guessed, somewhat teasingly. Rinoa smiled and shook her head.

"No, he was more worried than anything. I guess that lecture is going to be reserved for when I'm out of the hospital. Which... I think may be a little while away." she pointedly eyed her ribs and shook her head. "For awhile there I thought was going to go insane." she added; taking another glance at the bag Selphie had brought. "I guess being trapped in a bed all day isn't really my thing." 

"I'll say." Selphie replied with a mirthful chuckle. "Hey, since you're here, you've got tell me about the food. And be honest about it, I'm dying to know."

"It's exactly the way you always hear it is. ...Or at least my first meal was like that last night. Hyne, now I'm kind of glad I somehow managed to sleep through yesterday's breakfast and lunch. I don't think my stomach could have handled hospital _cuisine_ three times in one day."

Almost as if her stomach was listening to what she'd been saying, it chose to gurgle right then and there, causing Selphie's mouth to crack into a smile.

"...Hungry?"

Poking her empty tummy for emphasis, Rinoa candidly answered. "-Starved."

If physically possible, her visitor's smile grew even wider. "Would you like me to run to the hospital store right now and stock up on all the tasty junk food I can lay my hands on for you?" she offered.

"Selph...you don't know how much my stomach would appreciate that."

"Well I can't let you go super stick-thin, now can I?" After they'd both had a small laugh about that, Selphie got up from her chair. "If you sit tight, I'll be back in five minutes tops. Just make sure you don't waste away to nothing until then, 'kay?"

Right after, her friend made a hundred-meter dash out of the room in a matter of a second or two. Unfortunately, it was also only a matter of a second or two before Dr. Kadowaki took Selphie's place in the room. Rinoa didn't have high hopes for this mid-morning visit. There was something about the doctor's expression suggested that she wouldn't like what she was going to say next.

Now at the side of the bed, Dr. Kadowaki proceeded with the routine doctoral pleasantries. "Good morning Miss Heartilly. How are you feeling today?"

"To be honest...I'm kind of stiff and achy from lying down so much."

"Well, then I have some good news for you then." During the pause, Rinoa's ears perked up. "After carefully reviewing your charts for the past two days, it is my belief that walking wouldn't aggravate your fractured ribs as long as you're careful and don't exert yourself too much."

Rinoa's entire face lit up. "Oh thank you doctor. I was going batty lying around in bed all day."

The doctor had a hint of a warm smile on her face. "You're welcome. However, with that being said, I don't want you wandering the halls so in the meantime, you are only allowed to walk around in your room. You understand?"

"Sure, that's fine. I'm just happy I can walk now."

Dr. Kadowaki gave her a curt nod. "Very well then."

And with that, the older woman went around her bed and past the divider curtains where Rinoa couldn't see her. Wanting to take advantage of her newly reinstated privilege, Rinoa threw the covers aside and carefully moved her legs past the right side of the bed and dipped them down to the floor below. Even with sock-clad feet, the floor sent a cold shock down her spine. Nevertheless, this was a welcoming jolt. After slowly slinking away from the mattress, Rinoa was finally standing on her own accord on the cold hard tiles.

A rush of euphoric dizziness overwhelmed her being. Who would have ever known that one of the most basic things one could do would make her so damn happy? Seconds later, Rinoa had the suspicion that she would be remembering these first wobbly steps she was taking right now, the first ones since the accident, for a long, long time.

"_Good morning Mr. Leonhart. How have you been feeling since we changed the prescription being given to you for your symptoms?_"

Just then, the sound of voices on the other side surreptitiously stole her attention away from her current train of thought.

Rinoa sat down on the right side of her bed and grabbed the bag Selphie had given her so she could read one of the magazines while they were discussing ...stuff. However, in spite of her best efforts, the charade was useless. Rinoa couldn't deny her inherent curiosity any longer as she put the magazine back into the bag and sat there, listening intently. Every moral fiber in her body was telling her that it was wrong but when it came straight down to it... she just couldn't help herself. Especially since the doctors who came in to talk to either herself or Squall usually talked with either such an alluring tone or with such volume that it made the discussions they had nigh impossible to ignore or tune out.

-And Dr. Kadowaki was no exception to this rule.

"._..I've been doing better. I haven't had any dizzy spells since._"

"_Good. The new drug's showing promise then._" There was an intermittent pause. "_Have you had any side effects so far?_"

Rinoa closed her eyes tightly and went back to her usual position on the bed, hoping that it might somehow help her numb her mind. Needless to say, it didn't work very well. The lack of any discernable view made listening all the more easier to do. And even when she opened her eyes again, her ears were still acutely attuned to the goings-on on the other side of the curtain.

_"I've been getting mild headaches sporadically and my appetite is more or less shot." _

_"Mr. Leonhart, if you don't mind, could you be a little more specific in regards to the reason for your loss in appetite?" _Rinoa heard the doctor ask in a slightly sterner voice. 

_"I wouldn't know. At times I feel like it's the medicine causing it and at others, I'm convinced it's only the food."  
_

"_I see. Well, regardless if your lack of appetite stems from the medicine or the food itself, I would like you to make an effort to eat something at each meal so that no other complications arise. As you've been undoubtedly told earlier, the medication has to be taken with food." _

"Fine, I'll try." 

When Rinoa realized she had been subconsciously leaning towards the dividing curtain a little bit, she quickly returned to her normal upright position, somewhat embarrassed. Her curiosity was getting the best of her...again.

_  
"For today, we'll simply keep an eye on you during meal times to see if you regain your appetite and if you don't, we'll give you some food closer to your regular diet for the next couple of days to see if it makes a difference. I'll have to do some last-minute tests to make sure that this won't affect your condition and consult another doctor just so that you have more than one opinion on the matter, but I think that if we run a series of tests like this, we'll be able to see if the new medication is making you nauseated or if it's the food."_

"No fair!" she suddenly blurted out. She quickly covered her mouth with her hands, as if that would somehow take back what she had just said out loud. Quickly trying to find something to cover up her error, she opened her magazine to one of the quizzes.

"I am definitely _**NOT**_-" She looked quickly at the possible results, trying to find the least embarrassing one to shout out. "-boring!"

She crossed her fingers and silently prayed that it would be enough to cover up what she'd suddenly exclaimed earlier. When neither the doctor nor Squall had any comments about the outburst, she let out a sigh of relief. It could have been potentially disastrous, had either of the two realized she was kind of eavesdropping. Well, maybe not _disastrous_ per se, but something awkward none the less. For someone in her twenties, she sure did act like she was still in her teens at times.

Still feeling somewhat embarrassed, Rinoa genuinely tried to get into the magazine she had grabbed earlier. Although she still heard bits and pieces of the conversation on the other side of the divider curtain, she was quite pleased with herself for blocking most of it out – or at least to the point of only hearing disjointed snatches of it, which made following the conversation impossible.

After a few more minutes, Dr. Kadowaki walked by Rinoa's bed. She stopped before leaving, turning to face her.

"-Have you tried walking around yet?" the doctor inquired. Rinoa nodded obediently.

"Yes, I tried earlier but only for a couple of steps. I didn't want to push it on the first try in case if something happened."

"That's good." Dr. Kadowaki replied. Suddenly, she stepped away from the door. "_-Oh, I'm sorry._"

Rinoa looked over and, sure enough, there was Selphie carrying a fairly large plastic bag that she presumed held a lifesaving array of delicious goodies. Dr. Kadowaki looked at Rinoa once more before moving past Selphie and leaving the room.

Selphie haphazardly dumped the bag's contents on Rinoa's table and pushed it so that the large selection of colourful packaged goods was right in front of Rinoa. Tossing the empty bag aside, she sat down and pointed to the door that Dr. Kadowaki had just gone through.

"Was the doctor here to see you?" Selphie asked, sounding a little concerned. Rinoa nodded.

"Well, partially." she started to explain. "She came to me first and told me that I'm allowed to walk around the room instead of being cooped up in bed now – which is really good news for me. I've been lying around for days and my legs were starting to feel like marshmallows. Once she was done telling me the good news she-"

Rinoa hesitated. She didn't want to talk about Squall too much, especially since it would undoubtedly tip him off about how she had overheard what the doctor had said to him since he was, after all, only a few feet away and the only thing blocking them from one another was just a flimsy material curtain.

"-went over to see my roommate." she finished lamely.

Selphie's eyes widened in surprise. "_Oh,_ I didn't know you had a roommate Rinoa. How come you didn't say anything before?"

"Never got the chance to." she replied cheekily. Glancing at the selection of food in front of her, Rinoa picked a chocolate snack bar, opened its yellow wrapper and devoured it in nearly two seconds. Her stomach never felt more content.

Her visitor had a small laugh. "You know Rinoa; I'm surprised you didn't choke when you inhaled that."

Rinoa was in the process of unpeeling a second one when she heard her friend's comments. She had to smile though. "When you're as hungry as I am Selph, you don't exactly care how you eat the food, just as long as it gets in there the fastest way possible."

The second after she'd finished her sentence, Rinoa had already polished off the second bar. Wanting to save the rest for another time, she put all of the other assorted bars and things into the magazine bag seeing as Selphie tossed the original bag aside.

"Okay, I suppose you do have a point there Rin." It was at this point where she went back to the previous subject. "So...have you met your roommate or do you just know you have one because of the doctor going past the curtain to talk to them?"

Rinoa made sure to keep her voice low, not knowing if Squall eavesdropped as much as she did in this room. "I've met him, talked a little bit," as she was saying it, Rinoa mentally took note that even the word _little_ was stretching it, "-nothing much though. Um... why are you looking at me like that, Selph?"

Selphie motioned for her to come closer to her chair. Once Rinoa scooted over carefully, she whispered in her ear. "_Your roommate's a guy?_"

Rinoa nodded.

Selphie whispered some more into her ear. "_Sorry, just making sure I heard you right. I didn't know they could do that._"

"Well, I overheard some staff saying there was a surplus of patients coming in the other day, so maybe that could be why."

"Yeah, suppose that makes sense." Selphie commented, reprising her normal speaking voice. But just when Rinoa was convinced that this particular conversation was over, she whispered something else into her ear.

"-_**Selphie!**_" she shouted reflexively. Apparently, her friend had a very, _**very**_ twisted sense of humour or a very, _**very **_twisted line of thinking. The jury was out on this one since Rinoa wasn't quite sure if the petite brunette was being serious or not.

Regardless, the next thing she knew was that the fabled divider curtain noisily flew open, revealing one irate-looking young man.

"_Do neither of you understand the concept of how to keep quiet?_" he spat angrily, glaring daggers at both of them. Despite the acidity of his words, Rinoa's attention was primarily caught on something else.

"I'm sorry, but..._uh...Squall?_" She paused nervously for second before pointing at the curtain rod. "You kind of wrecked the curtain when you opened it. I don't think it'll close again with nearly all of those things broken off."

Looking up to where she had pointed to, he groaned when he saw the damage. Even he couldn't deny that what Rinoa had said held some validity. Moments later, he got off of the left side his bed, walked around it and past the dragging heap of curtains. Once he was at the foot of her bed, he stopped momentarily.

"...I'll go find someone who can fix this."

And with that, he walked out of the room. Once the door made the typical clicking noise after being shut, Rinoa and Selphie exchanged glances. The latter's face split in an ear-to-ear grin.

"_...Don't say it Selph_." Rinoa pre-emptively warned.

"Okay, I won't, but I hope you know that you're ruining my fun."

The raven-haired woman shook her head dismissively and sighed. '._..Maybe I am boring after all._'

—

**End of Chapter Comments **– Well, we hope you liked this and we also wish everyone a Happy New Year!


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